A few days ago we (well, me, let's be honest) came up with another little project, and the good one about this effort is that it'll last for a wee while.
The Concept
Simple enough really - a World Cup sweepstake. 32 places for 32 teams (I did consider it making it 33 in a terrible Ireland based joke but decided against it) No cost to take part, and a prize for the winner (more on that later)
The Draw
The draw will be taking place tomorrow - Monday 31st May 2010. Sometime between 12:00-15:00 I fancy, if Dan has woken up by then.
The draw will be conducted by myself, however I appreciate that in these things honesty is very important. Therefore, I am pleased to reveal there will be an independent adjudicator present, and I am absolutely DELIGHTED to say we approached the legendary Jim Rosenthal to fulfil this role.
He said no, however, so we've brought in his twin brother instead. Please give a warm welcome to Jim Hosenthal!
Naturally, some people are going to be pleased with the draw, others won't. I'm afraid someone will get North Korea, and we all have a 1/32 chance of that unfortunate event happening to us.
Well, not me, as I've rigged it so I get Brazil, to be fair.
The 32 Competitors
UNI PEOPLE
-Ewar
-Dan
-Cash
-Shaun
-Chinny
-Rob
-Arun
-Bob
-Ben
-Vole
FRIENDS
-Rich B
-Alex
-G
-Timmy
-Ivan
TWITTER FOLK
-Vicky1978
-engageyourbrain
-ManUtd24
-NickOGS20
-benjaminjudge
-Sidekick28
F365 TWITTER FOLK
-BigWelsh
-sodpenguin
-rm4rml
-daddytee2k
-PBC13
-pholk
-KnowTheLedge
-danroye
SPECIAL GUESTS
-Mark Bright
-Helen Chamberlain
-Nick Dixon
Yes, you read correctly - thanks to the sterling work of the lovely Vicky, we're very pleased to announce that we have 3 very special guests taking part.
Mark Bright is a former Premier League footballer who was one half of the famous Palace strike force of Wright and Bright. According to wikipedia, the bastion of truth, Mark scored 167 league goals in English football. You can now catch Mark on Football Focus and as a co-commentator on BBC football.
Helen Chamberlain has been presenting Soccer AM on Sky since...well...as far back as I can remember, and I can remember Gary "Stumpy" Stevens on the show. Wiki tells me this:
She also modelled in underwear for Euro 2004 in Trafalgar Square, and during the photoshoot caused the driver of a double decker bus to run into the back of another bus because he was staring at her.
I can't verify whether that is true or not, but I certainly hope so. What I can verify however is that she's a genuinely nice person, having had the pleasure of meeting her once.
Nick Dixon is a reporter on GMTV.
The Prize(s)
The lucky person who has the winning team in the sweepstake will receive a gift box, which will comprise of a box, funnily enough, filled with gifts, funnily enough. Please note however that the "gifts" will be random items that Dan and I don't really want anymore, so don't get your hopes up - hey, you're not paying anything to enter this, shut up.
Dan and I have been talking however, and we've come to the conclusion that if one of our three special guests (Mark, Helen, Nick) win, a gift box full of random crap won't really cut it. Besides, it would be a bit weird to ask any of them to supply an address to us - two random losers.
So we've come to the conclusion that in the case of a special guest winning, we'll make a donation to the charity of the winners choice, and the gift box will go to the runner up instead.
Is that it? Can we go now?
I think so. Immediately after the draw tomorrow we'll be tweeting/emailing/Facebooking/texting you with your country. Obviously we'll be keeping a record of it ourselves, but please do make a note yourselves so you can cheer on your team once the extravaganza of football starts. Excited?
MANY THANKS AND GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE TAKING PART!
UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!
We have now completed the draw, and as a few people have asked for the complete list of "who got who", here it is in the order it was drawn:
1) Ben - New Zealand
2) Dan - Japan
3) PBC13 - Algeria
4) benjaminjudge - Serbia
5) Rob - Chile
6) rm4rml - Brazil
7) Vole - Spain
8) Helen C - Slovakia
9) Vicky1978 - Argentina
10) Sidekick28 - Switzerland
11) sodpenguin - North Korea
12) Shaun - South Africa
13) Alex - Slovenia
14) daddytee2k - Honduras
15) danroye - Portugal
16) NickOGS20 - Nigeria
17) G - Ghana
18) Mark Bright - Australia
19) ManUtd24 - USA
20) Bob - Denmark
21) Ewar - Germany
22) Cash - Mexico
23) Rich B - Uruguay
24) Pholk - France
25) Timmy - Ivory Coast
26) Arun - South Korea
27) Know_The_Ledge - Paraguay
28) Ivan - Greece
29) engageyourbrain - Netherlands
30) Chinny - England
31) BigWelsh - Cameroon
32) Nick Dixon - Italy
Once again, good luck to all!
